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1 – 10 of over 14000Liena Kano, Alain Verbeke and Carly Drake
We develop a concept of the global factory, first introduced by Buckley and colleagues (2004, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014), as a stand-alone construct associated with significant…
Abstract
Purpose
We develop a concept of the global factory, first introduced by Buckley and colleagues (2004, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014), as a stand-alone construct associated with significant predictive capacity, discuss dynamics of success of the global factory, and identify and analyze social mechanisms deployed by the lead firm head office.
Methodology/approach
We conceptualize the global factory as a form of a flagship network and augment internalization theory with insights from interorganizational networks research to explore the dynamics of the global factory’s origination and functioning.
Findings
We clarify under what conditions a global factory-type network is more likely to emerge and describe social mechanisms generated by the lead firm head office to help the global factory sustain itself and thrive. We argue that in order to benefit from potential efficiencies of the global factory, the lead firm head office must deploy combinations of social mechanisms. We further argue that the role of the lead firm head office is that of a joint value orchestrator and a social broker, in addition to the controlling intelligence function.
Research limitations
Future work on the global factory should include further conceptualization of social mechanisms deployed by the lead firm, exploration of operating mode heterogeneity within the global factory, and large-scale empirical research.
Practical implications
Lead firm managers should embrace the role of the joint value orchestrators and implement social mechanisms described in this chapter to facilitate smooth operation of the global factory.
Social implications
Global factory governance further increases multinationals’ geographic reach and market power; yet, it is not a universal recipe for market success, and therefore global factories’ power to shape the global economy should not be overestimated.
Originality/value
By linking the global factory to networks literature, we have suggested a novel way to view the concept and articulated more fully its underlying assumptions. Further research on the global factory will help advance our understanding of the dynamics of the global economy and the role of multinationals, their head offices, and their managers in shaping the economy.
Jenny Hillemann and Alain Verbeke
The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate that sound, mainstream international business (IB) thinking should be applied when assessing the economic opportunities available to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate that sound, mainstream international business (IB) thinking should be applied when assessing the economic opportunities available to multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) markets.
Design/methodology/approach
We describe and evaluate critically the key points made in the BOP literature about the alleged attractiveness of BOP markets, and the alleged strengths of MNEs to penetrate these markets successfully. We revisit the managerial implications from the BOP literature using an internalization theory lens.
Findings
We demonstrate the weak conceptual grounding of conventional BOP thinking, which suggests that MNEs from developed economies should be very entrepreneurial and should systematically serve BOP markets with new products and business models. We also show the fallacy of the idea that a “success template” in one BOP market would be easily replicable in other BOP markets and would allow the MNE to earn economies of scale and scope.
Research implications
IB researchers should start conducting serious studies on the attractiveness of BOP markets for MNEs. They should also analyze seriously the micro-foundations of successful knowledge recombination in BOP markets and the limits to the transferability of success templates. Mainstream IB theory, namely internalization theory, is particularly well equipped to analyze the costs and benefits of entering BOP markets, building upon a comparative institutional logic.
Practical implications
Senior MNE managers should not allow themselves to be blinded by BOP gurus, advocating the alleged great benefits of penetrating BOP markets. BOP markets may be especially challenging international expansion targets for MNEs because of large institutional voids, high uncertainty, high “distance” vis-à-vis the home country market and the difficulties of transferring relevant knowledge from one BOP market to another.
Originality/value
This chapter is the first to show that mainstream IB research can be usefully applied to analyze the “real” attractiveness of BOP markets for MNEs. Comparative institutional analysis is proven to provide substantially more insight to make BOP market penetration work than past guru-talk on BOP markets.
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Jenny Hillemann and Alain Verbeke
This chapter discusses the global factory paradigm. We show how mainstream international business (IB) thinking, namely, internalization theory, can guide multinational enterprise…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter discusses the global factory paradigm. We show how mainstream international business (IB) thinking, namely, internalization theory, can guide multinational enterprise (MNE) strategic decision-making in the context of a global factory network.
Methodology/approach
We identify the key assumptions made in the global factory paradigm about the fine slicing of economic activities and the related implications for the ownership status and location of each activity. In order to overcome the global factory paradigm’s relative lack of predictive capacity, as compared to internalization theory, we propose an asset-bundling approach. This approach uses a clear and unambiguous criterion, namely, the tradability of resources (and resource combinations) to determine which sets of activities can best be left to external market contracting or should on the contrary be internalized on the basis of efficiency considerations.
Findings
We describe the enhanced role of developing/transition countries in the functioning of the global economy and show that these countries represent an increasing share of worldwide economic activities. Given this macrolevel development, the global factory, as a complex organizational form governing both internal activities and contracts with external parties, is rapidly gaining in importance. We describe, at the conceptual level, the strengths and weaknesses of the global factory and propose a “decision dynamics” matrix to support global factory, senior managers’ strategies in the realm of ownership status and location.
Research implications
Future research on the MNE should focus on in-depth analysis of firms that embody “global factory”-type characteristics in order to understand better the evolution of this type of company and to capture the close requisite links among the focal firm, external contracting parties, and the broader environment. Such research should also lead to a better understanding of innovative resource combination processes and the transferability of non-location-bound firm-specific advantages (FSAs) across the global factory network.
Practical implications
In the global factory, the MNE head office assumes the role of resource orchestrator and is responsible for key strategic decisions on ownership status and location. Here, the head office must assess critically the operations that are part of the MNE’s value chain and reflect on the firm’s international dispersion of economic activities on an ongoing basis, given a myriad of broad environmental changes and changes in external competitive pressures. Our “decision dynamics” matrix provides a simple but effective managerial tool supporting MNE ownership status and location decisions, but the head office’s capability to make these decisions should not be overestimated.
Originality/value
We explicitly link internalization theory with the global factory paradigm and explore unresolved issues in the relevant literature. Internalization theory prescribes the optimal ownership status and location for each economic activity considered. The theory focuses on the bundling of firm-level resources and complementary ones held by external parties, for each fine-sliced economic activity. It also considers explicitly the nature of the linkages among these activities.
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The paper attempts to establish the connection between structural reliability and structural optimization for the particular case of plastic structures. Along this line, the paper…
Abstract
The paper attempts to establish the connection between structural reliability and structural optimization for the particular case of plastic structures. Along this line, the paper outlines a reliability‐based optimization approach to design plastic structures with uncertain interdependent strengths and acted on by random interdependent loads. The importance of such interdependencies, and of some of the other statistical parameters used as input data in probabilistic computations, is demonstrated by several examples of sensitivity studies on both the probability of collapse failure as well as the reliability‐based optimum solution.
Stephen Twum, Elaine Aspinwall and Jörg Fliege
Reliability is a major quality characteristic which has grown in importance as products/systems have become ever more sophisticated. Neglecting it could spell great losses in…
Abstract
Purpose
Reliability is a major quality characteristic which has grown in importance as products/systems have become ever more sophisticated. Neglecting it could spell great losses in terms of patronage, revenue, and even lives. The purpose of this paper is to present a multi‐criteria optimisation model and methodology for the Pareto optimal assignment of reliability to the components of a series‐parallel system in order to maximise its reliability.
Design/methodology/approach
The subsystems' reliabilities are maximised independently but simultaneously in order to maximise the overall system reliability, while a penalty function modelling cost of reliability improvement is minimised. The resultant continuous and nonlinear optimisation problem is scalarised by a convex combination of the criteria and the MATLAB Optimisation Toolbox is used to generate the solutions.
Findings
The results for an illustrative example problem extracted from the literature show that: higher reliabilities could be assigned to the components, in order to achieve or exceed target system reliability; cost increased sharply with slight improvements in the component reliabilities, and the model was stable under the weighting scheme used.
Originality/value
The novelty of this work is in: the multi‐criteria optimisation view taken of the design problem; the focus on the subsystems' reliabilities and cost as the criteria to be optimised; the use of the two aforementioned qualities for the purpose of Pareto assignment of component reliabilities in a system's design; and the use of the model and methodology in the context of series‐parallel systems.
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Dan M. Frangopol and Rachid Nakib
In the last twenty years, the methods for structural system reliability evaluation have evolved considerably. Since these methods are based on different assumptions, it is…
Abstract
In the last twenty years, the methods for structural system reliability evaluation have evolved considerably. Since these methods are based on different assumptions, it is necessary to evaluate their capabilities. For this reason, a research study was initiated at the University of Colorado at Boulder in order to investigate the accuracy and reliability of various methods for structural system reliability evaluation. This paper emphasizes certain important parametric studies on system reliability methods under uncertainty. The sensitivity of the accuracy of the methods to changes in both strength and load correlations is demonstrated by means of numerical examples.
Tomoaki Akiba, Hisashi Yamamoto and Yasuhiro Tsujimura
For the considered system, an enumeration method is applicable to evaluate the exact system reliability only for very small‐sized systems, because, when the size of system is…
Abstract
Purpose
For the considered system, an enumeration method is applicable to evaluate the exact system reliability only for very small‐sized systems, because, when the size of system is large, it takes huge execution time. Therefore, the paper provides approximate values for the system reliability as useful for calculating the reliability of large systems in a reasonable execution time.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides upper and lower bounds of the system reliability, and limit theorem for the reliability of our considered system in i.i.d. case.
Findings
The paper experimentally finds that the proposed upper and lower bounds are effective when component reliabilities close to one or the value of k becomes larger. Next, it concludes approximate values for approximate equation derived from the limit theorem are always smaller than lower bound through numerical experiments.
Research limitations/implications
The upper and lower bounds for the reliability of a system can be calculated by using the reliability of a small system by the same idea as previous study for two‐dimensional system.
Practical implications
Up to now some researchers studied multi‐dimensional consecutive‐k‐out‐of‐n:F systems, and showed promising applications of such multi‐dimensional models, e.g. diagnosis of a disease diagnosed by reading an X‐ray. As another examples, three‐dimensional system can be applied for the mathematical model of a three‐dimensional flash memory cell failure model, and so on.
Originality/value
The paper considers a kind of three‐dimensional k‐within‐consecutive‐r‐out‐of‐n:F system. It proposes upper and lower bounds of the system reliability and limit theorem.
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A multi-state linear k-within-(r, s)-of-(m, n): F lattice system consists of m×n components arranged in m rows and n columns. The possible states of the system and its components…
Abstract
Purpose
A multi-state linear k-within-(r, s)-of-(m, n): F lattice system consists of m×n components arranged in m rows and n columns. The possible states of the system and its components are: 0, 1, 2, …, H. According to k values, the system can be categorized into three special cases: decreasing, increasing and constant. The system reliability of decreasing and constant cases exists. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the system reliability in increasing case with i.i.d components, where there is no any algorithm for evaluating the system reliability in this case.
Design/methodology/approach
The Boole-Bonferroni bounds were applied for evaluating the reliability of many systems. In this paper, the author reformulated the second-order Boole-Bonferroni bounds to be suitable for the evaluation of the multi-state system reliability. And the author applied these bounds for deriving the lower bound and upper bound of increasing multi-state linear k-within-(r, s)-of-(m, n): F lattice system.
Findings
An illustrated example of the proposed bounds and many numerical examples are given. The author tested these examples and concluded the cases that make the new bounds are sharper.
Practical implications
In this paper, the author considered an important and complex system, the multi-state linear k-within-(r, s)-of-(m, n): F lattice system; it is a model for many applications, for example, telecommunication, radar detection, oil pipeline, mobile communications, inspection procedures and series of microwave towers systems.
Originality/value
This paper suggests a method for the computation of the bounds of increasing multi-state linear k-within-(r,s)-of-(m,n): F lattice system. Furthermore, the author concluded that the cases that make these bounds are sharper.
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Rajanand Rajagopalan and C. Richard Cassady
The purpose of this paper is to develop an improved, enumerative solution procedure for solving the original selective maintenance problems. Selective maintenance refers to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop an improved, enumerative solution procedure for solving the original selective maintenance problems. Selective maintenance refers to the process of identifying the set of maintenance actions to perform from a desirable set of maintenance actions.
Design/methodology/approach
A series of four improvements to a previously proposed enumerative solution procedure are presented. The improvements are defined and tested sequentially on an experimental set of problem instances. The improvements are characterized relative to the achieved reduction in CPU time for a software application.
Findings
The improved enumerative procedure reduces the CPU time required to solve the selective maintenance problems by as much as 99 per cent. There is a corresponding increase in practical problem size of more than 200 per cent.
Practical implications
Almost all organizations use a variety of repairable systems to achieve their mission. Typically, these systems have to share the limited maintenance resources possessed by the organization. Therefore, an improved ability to solve selective maintenance problem is relevant to many industries.
Originality/value
The body of knowledge relative to selective maintenance continues to grow. However, this is the first study aimed at improving the capability of engineers to solve practically‐sized selective maintenance problems.
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Vipin Sharma, Abdul Q. Ansari and Rajesh Mishra
The purpose of this paper is to design a efficient layout of Multistage interconnection network which has cost effective solution with high reliability and fault-tolerence…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to design a efficient layout of Multistage interconnection network which has cost effective solution with high reliability and fault-tolerence capability. For parallel computation, various multistage interconnection networks (MINs) have been discussed hitherto in the literature, however, these networks always required further improvement in reliability and fault-tolerance capability. The fault-tolerance capability of the network can be achieved by increasing the number of disjoint paths as a result the reliability of the interconnection networks is also improved.
Design/methodology/approach
This proposed design is a modification of gamma interconnection network (GIN) and three disjoint path gamma interconnection network (3-DGIN). It has a total seven number of paths for all tag values which is uniform out of these seven paths, three paths are disjoint paths which increase the fault tolerance capability by two faults. Due to the presence of more paths than the GIN and 3-DGIN, this proposed design is more reliable.
Findings
In this study, a new design layout of a MIN has been proposed which provides three disjoint paths and uniformity in terms of an equal number of paths for all source-destination (S-D) pairs. The new layout contains fewer nodes as compared to GIN and 3-DGIN. This design provides a symmetrical structure, low cost, better terminal reliability and provides an equal number of paths for all tag values (|S-D|) when compared with existing MINs of this class.
Originality/value
A new design layout of MINs has been purposed and its two terminal reliability is calculated with the help of the reliability block diagram technique.
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